Eagle Bearer
by FiresofAnarchy
Summary: A collection of one shots featuring various characters from Assassin's Creed Odyssey.


**Eagle Bearer**

**A Conman and A Vineyard**

**So I finished this game like a month ago. Or at least finished the main questline and got to a point where I was comfortable stepping away. And honestly after reading up on some of the stuff they've been doing with the story since I'm kind of glad I haven't bothered going back. What made this game great was the fact that the story didn't feel like an Assassin's Creed story and it looks like they've kind of ruined it by throwing in a bunch of the bullshit from the lore in there. Like don't get me wrong I like the old Assassin's Creed games but the story was never something that resonated with me. Unless we're talking about Assassin's Creed III which also kind of circumvented the typical Assassin's Creed formula because that game's so underrated and Connor/Aveline fanart was the background on my Ipod. Anyways we're not here to talk about Connor/Aveline unfortunately though I may finally bring myself to write some fic for them at some point. No we're here to talk about Kassandra. Nothing too crazy going on in this fic, just me examining Kassandra's perception of family. Lot's of Nikolaos criticism in here so if you like him you may not want to read this. Regardless I was listening to Coming Home by Falling In Reverse while writing this and I hope you like it.**

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Kassandra stepped off the deck of the Adrestia and chanced a glance around the town of Sami. It felt weird being back where it all started after so long. Nine years, it had been nine years since that day she said goodbye to everyone and everything she cared about and began a journey to find the father who had cast her aside like she was nothing. Looking back at who she was back then was like looking at a completely different person. She had been naive to expect anything other than disappointment from another meeting with him. Something in her had still been hoping to rebuild the family that she had lost as a child. Now the blood of family old and new stained her hands and she wasn't sure if it'd ever wash off. With a sigh she started her way along a familiar path that led west towards a mountain vineyard. A fierce anxiety was telling her that what she was doing was stupid and that she should turn around and set sail once again before she was met with even more disappointment. She pressed on.

Killing Nikolaos had been easy, far easier than it should ever be for someone to kill their father. If she had stopped to think about it for even a minute she might not have been able to do it, but in that moment she hadn't been thinking. All the years she had spent clawing her way back to being comfortable in her own skin again after that night on Mount Taygetos and she had somehow thought that one more conversation would be enough to wash it all away. But no, he was still the same duty-obsessed Spartan that he had always been, perhaps even more so, and throwing her to her supposed death had been his duty that day. His attempts to justify his actions and even go so far as to blame her caused a rage to build up inside of her that she had never even known she was capable of. In the span of time it took him to get six words out her spear was moving to exact the revenge that she more than deserved on the man that had destroyed her life.

Everything with Stentor after that had been so unnecessary. It was yet another injustice visited upon her by the man who had once dared to call himself her father. A man who could have been her brother in another lifetime instead hated her guts all because Nikolaos's duty had never gotten in the way of raising him. Nikolaos was his hero, someone who could do no wrong, and so by killing him she had declared herself an enemy. She had actually thought that they had been working really well together in devising a plan of action to conquer Boeotia, between all the shouting matches, and maybe they had been but it was never going to be enough. She took no pleasure in his death, but he had left her no choice in the end. She couldn't be mad at him, he was doing what he thought was right. Nikolaos was the one at fault and at the end of the day Stentor was just another family that he had robbed her of.

And that of course brought her to Nikolaos's original sin. Alexios had actually been her brother, at one point in time she would have done anything to protect him. Family had a duty to protect each other no matter the cost, but that was apparently one duty Nikolaos didn't understand. The man that she met that night at the cult meeting was nothing like the brother she had known though. At that point he was nothing more than a pompous, arrogant tool for The Cult Of Kosmos to use as they saw fit. He was so lost in his own delusions of self-importance that he couldn't even see how much of a tool he actually was. In the end he didn't give her much of a choice either when they once again found each other at the top of Mount Taygetos. She took no pleasure in his death either. The blood of her family once again stained her hands. Despite her best efforts she hadn't been able to save any of them.

In the aftermath of everything her mother threw herself back into building her place in Spartan society back up again. She wanted Kassandra to stay close, she was the only family she had left too, but staying in that house in that town only brought about negative thoughts and Kassandra couldn't do it. She finally broke down and told her mother that she didn't see Sparta as her home anymore. The weight that came off her back after those words were out of her mouth and couldn't be taken back felt amazing. The inevitable questions about what she did consider her home came about. Four answers presented themselves to her and she told her mother each one.

"You are my home," it only felt right to start there.

"The Adrestia is my home," that ship and its crew were like family to her at this point.

"Kyra is my home," somehow in the midst of all this craziness she had actually managed to find love.

"Kephallonia is my home," and that answer somehow felt even more right than all the others.

Her mother nodded solemnly in understanding, "Then go, I'll still be here when you feel comfortable coming back."

Promises like that were hard to keep but Kassandra added her own promise that she'd return as soon as possible before hugging her mother and leaving.

There was still the question of her biological father and everything he told her about Atlantis too, but she had seen what that kind of "Fulfilling your destiny," and "Greater good of humanity," talk had done to Alexios and she wasn't about to put herself on the line for a man who seemed to care even less about her than Nikolaus did. He was just another man consumed with his duty and she wasn't about to be his lapdog. The Cult Of Kosmos that was still very much hunting her was a much more immediate concern than some ethereal threat that Pythagoras could only explain in vague terms. She had never really been much of one for believing in destiny anyways.

No, she decided to focus on what actually mattered and that meant getting drunk and sharing stories with her crew, having dinner with her mother in her childhood home, giving the woman she loved more nights to remember under the watchful eye of the stars, and revisiting the place and people that had given her a home when she had nothing. The familiar vineyard was right in front of her now. It seemed like only yesterday that Markos was telling her about his next crazy business venture with a grin on his face that she couldn't say no to. She knocked on the door of the main house and prayed to whatever gods would still listen to her that the man that raised her still owned the property and hadn't been killed in a plague or pushed out by bandits. Markos was the one to open the door, a little greyer than the last time she saw him, and she never would have thought that she'd be so relieved to see him.

"Kassandra," his voice was surprised. "Come to visit your old friend Markos after all these years?"

Before she could stop herself she was wrapping him up in a hug.

"It's been too long," she said releasing him. "I'm sorry I never visited before."

"You were off doing far more important things," he said. "Pulling me out of more scrapes would have been a waste of your talents."

"I found my family," she said.

"Well that's good," he replied.

"But finding them," she paused to catch her breath. "Finding them wasn't all I thought it would be."

"Well," he wasn't very good with these kinds of conversations. "Would you like to come in and drink away your worries."

A smile tugged at the corner of her mouth, "I'd love that."

It was a few drinks in when she dropped the biggest bombshell.

"Phoibe's dead," the words still didn't feel real to her.

He was silent for a long moment before saying, "I assume those responsible are dead."

"Not all of them," she said with surprising hardness. "Aspasia's still out there."

"Are you going to kill her too," he asked unsure.

"It's stupid," she began. "I should've had enough of revenge by now, it's made me do so many terrible things."

"But she was like a daughter to me," she hadn't even admitted that to herself before, the wine was doing things to her. "And damn them for taking her away from me before I could tell her that."

"Sometimes we don't tell the people we love certain things because we've been hurt so much in the past and we're afraid to be hurt like that again," the wine was doing things to him too. "And that doesn't make us bad people Kassandra, no definitely not."

"The fact that people like us can love again at all should be enough for the world not to continue fucking with us," he stood up. "But it never is."

"And the only thing we can hope for while those people we love are putting their lives on the line every day and we receive no word back from them is that somehow they just know anyways without us having to say it outright," he was looking her directly in the eyes now.

"I know," she had always known but had never wanted to admit it even to herself before.

"Then I'm sure Phoibe knew too," he sat back down. "Gods willing."

"Gods willing," she raised her glass in a toast before downing the rest of it.

Markos did the same on the other side of the room.

Things for her had changed a lot in the last nine years. But even after so many years apart this conman who couldn't keep himself out of trouble was still more of a father to her than either of the men that claimed that title. When she went searching for her family all those years ago and started this incredible journey she did so by ignoring the family that was right in front of her. She wasn't going to make that mistake again.


End file.
